Democracy, As Rob Anders Would Write It

Rob "Sleepy" Anders must be feeling the heat from having competition running against him for the nomination in Calgary Signal Hill.

Yesterday, he threatened to sue Ron Liepert over claims that Liepert's campaign made that Anders' campaign was making misleading phone calls to constituents.

Liepert responded with a statement that says Elections Canada is investigating the incident. 

"We've filed complaints based on specific instances of calls from the Anders' campaign phone number claiming to be the Liepert campaign," he said in an email.

Today, he comes trotting out to claim that the dreaded "Red Tories" are trying to hijack his "True Blue Conservative Party", complete with a bunch of "Wanted, Dead Or Alive" style leaflets naming the people that Anders thinks are "temporary Tories".

At a news conference on Thursday Anders revealed the first three names on his list — former federal Liberal candidate and nursing professor Janice Kinch, radio personality Buzz Bishop and Greg Schmidt, former president of the Energy Council of Canada.  

Anders characterized his battle with Liepert as a struggle for the soul of the Conservative Party. He said the political process is being hijacked by people who are purchasing Conservative memberships just so that they can cast a vote in support of his challenger.

Considering that the CPC has moved heaven and earth to protect Anders in past nomination skirmishes, I imagine he's feeling more than a little heat since the Party is somewhat cornered on the matter this time around, having committed to "open" nomination contests for all MPs who haven't faced a nomination race since 2011.

Rob Anders ... Wants To Resurrect What?

Apparently, Rob Anders thinks that we need to resurrect the old "Rape" laws.

He wants anyone convicted of rape to serve a mandatory minimum of eight years in prison for a first offence and 10 years for each subsequent conviction. 

“I ideally would have liked to have seen rapists get 20-years mandatory minimum but because of what we anticipate in constitutional challenges, we decided to go with eight and 10 because it was well within inside the penalties for manslaughter.”

As usual for Rob Anders, he seems to be quite unaware of why the old Rape laws were replaced with "Sexual Assault".  First of all, Rape has a fairly narrow definition.  Second, as we have come to understand, there are entire classes of sexual assault which are just as damaging to their victims as forced sexual intercourse.  The much broader Sexual Assault laws actually encompass these laws, and because of the language of them, they encompass both male and female offenders, where a Rape law is largely solely enforceable with respect to male offenders.

Mr. Anders claims that the sentences being handed out are "too lenient", yet he fails to acknowledge that the available sentences for sexual assault can run as high as 10 to 14 years.  How often sentences that long are handed out, I cannot say.  I would imagine that the longest sentences are reserved for the worst offenders.  He is also ignoring the availability of long term and dangerous offender designations.

While we haven't seen Anders' legislation yet, I fully expect that it will be written in a manner which virtually guarantees that it will collapse the minute it is challenged under the terms of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

 

From The Idiot File

I see Ottawa's most protected MP, Rob Anders, is being an ass again:

Late last week, Mr. Anders again raised eyebrows among his colleagues.

There was a big card in the House of Commons lobby for MPs to sign to “Support Our Troops,” according to one MP.

Most MPs signed “best wishes” and expressed other sentiments. But not Mr. Anders, who wrote: “When in doubt pull the trigger.”

Before you go dismissing this as another antic from a buffoon of an MP, remember that this is the same MP that Con$ervative HQ has repeatedly changed its candidate selection process to protect.

We might better ask ourselves why it is that this man who has called Nelson Mandela a terrorist, and now is calling on our troops to use force unthinkingly, continues to be a protected member of Harper's inner circle? When you consider what's happened to Dianne Ablonczy, for example, how is it that an MP most citizens consider to be a complete waste is so highly protected?

There Goes The Credibility

One of the challenges for the Wildrose Alliance in Alberta is to avoid looking like they are the new home of political extremism in Alberta.

The cautious first steps in that direction happened when they selected Danielle Smith as the party's new leader. Today, Rob Anders just undid that step by taking out a WRA membership.

Will They Dispose of Anders?

I've watched Calgary West with the same kind of fascination that a wreck on the Deerfoot evokes.

While the Reform/Alliance party existed, it wasn't too hard to see how Rob Anders managed to get nominated repeatedly. However, when the Alliance party merged with the former Progressive Conservatives, there were suddenly some fairly serious challenges to Anders.

To this point, the Conservative party apparatus has moved to protect Anders whatever way they can, including changing the rules for nominations when Anders was clearly in danger of losing the nomination. How it is that Anders continues to be protected by the party apparatus is beyond me. The man is embarrassment to Canada and Canadians ... and it isn't some magical personality trait that gets him elected in a tough riding - you could nominate a bale of hay as a conservative in Calgary and it would get elected.

However, another move happened yesterday that might signal a sea change in Calgary West. It seems that most of Anders' supporters on the local riding board were swept away in what I presume was the AGM vote to replace the riding executive.

It's a sad statement about Alberta's political scene that this looks like some kind of victory for democracy; an even sadder statement is that Anders has been elected at all.